The majority of the materials in the Emily Dickinson Collection were given to the College on March 23, 1956, by Millicent Todd Bingham, the daughter of David Peck Todd (AC 1875) and Mabel Loomis Todd, and herself a Dickinson scholar and editor. The original collection consisted of 850 poems and fragments of poems; 350 letters, notes, and drafts to and from family and friends; the daguerreotype and silhouette of Emily Dickinson; and the extensive correspondence and publication material of Mabel Loomis Todd and Millicent Todd Bingham. The majority of the Dickinson manuscripts were given to Mabel Loomis Todd by Lavinia Dickinson after her sister's death. Others were gathered by Todd from Dickinson's correspondents through personal request and a number of well publicized efforts to gather Dickinson material. Millicent Todd Bingham inherited these from her mother. The remainder of the materials in the collection came to Amherst College from various sources beginning in 1936 and continuing to the present.

Information About Books Owned, Inscribed or Attributed to Ownership by Dickinson

Archives and Special Collections owns a number of books that were owned, inscribed by or attributed to the ownership of Emily Dickinson. The books are listed below; additional information is available through the Amherst College Library catalog.